Lanes, Blocks & Groups: Causality Story Sequencer 2.0

[@bobbydbuze]

Hi Per, Great Job! Any update on when the Production Add-on will be available? Thanks.

[@BadKarma714]

Do you have an Android app?

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

Hi! Not yet! We're built from the ground for a full desktop experience on mobile, and the entire codebase is ready for mobile. However, we're doing collaboration first, because with mobile apps, you desperately need a way to get your data back and forth, and working in multiple apps at the same time as all the same sync problems as two people collaborating. But it's a high priority, and will go right after collaboration.

[@jonathanbellaluto1491]

Hi Per, Amazing Job!!! one question....is it possible to upload pre-written notes from google docs for examples? Thank you!

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

Hi, thanks! What is the goal of the inputting the notes? Is it for them to become individual beats? Or appear as a list of notes in research? Or become briefly written scenes?

[@jonathanbellaluto1491]

@@HollywoodCameraWork I was thinking like this (maybe I might be wrong) once I uploaded my pre written stuff it kind of recognised the form and beats( that's my dream scenario) but otherwise is it possible to upload those files on that software and from there to structure it? Thank you

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

@@jonathanbellaluto1491 Hi, it still depends on what the text is intended to become in Causality. Is the text script fragments or beats? Or just random scribblings that don't qualify yet as script snippets? If the text is script fragments, then the easiest way to get it structured is to save it as a text file with the .fountain extension, and then put scene headings into the text. Search for "fountain file format" on Google. This is a plain text script format that looks and feels like a script. If you add scene headings to it, we'll break it up correctly when you import as Fountain.

[@jonathanbellaluto1491]

@@HollywoodCameraWork AHH ok , and if I want to determine beats out of my notes?

[@jonathanbellaluto1491]

@@HollywoodCameraWork to your first questions.... A bit of everything

[@akanilla]

In version 3.1.1 when I select Main Lane I have just Name and Color, there is no option for choosing Mode. Perhaps you have moved this option to another location?

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

Hi! This video is from 2.0 where we still had a distinction. Setting a mode for the whole lane was an old design that we were never happy with, and in 3.0, there's no mode, and there's not even subtext beats as a standalone beat. Instead, beats are beats, and then tags do the work of subtext beats of being character traits or "flavors" that you attach to beats as needed. So if a Tag represents the subtext of a character having anger problems, you might have 10 beats where the anger problem is expressed, so those 10 beats are tagged with the anger problem tag.

[@akanilla]

@@HollywoodCameraWork Thanks for reply. So I think we need new tutorials with 3.0 version

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

@@akanilla Yes. But key, make sure to watch the 3.0 video.

[@farquarrmcspadden]

Ah - so Place is like a safety check. Now I know! That dead Lane in the middle (above Main Lane) drives me crazy, though. It's not a true Lane (you can't put anything there). Why is that there and can you just eliminate that?

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

Thanks for posting! Since the canvas can be positioned freely (with zooming and panning), there's such a thing as "outside" that will sometimes show, just like the "outside" of an image will show in Photoshop if you're panned over the edge. If we were strictly top-aligned, you'd lose a lot of freedom to position the canvas, and I'm pretty sure this wouldn't be popular. However, we've gone back and forth more than once on the colors of this, because it does indeed feel like a "dead lane", and you kind of expect to be able to place things there. But every time we try to darken it to make it look more clearly like the "outside", we somehow feel that looks even weirder. So let's focus group this a bit. What color would work better for you to make this clearly look like outside? Do you know Photoshop, and would you be able to try to darken the outside to your taste?

[@farquarrmcspadden]

@@HollywoodCameraWork I'm not sure that color would help, at least for me. From your comment, I do see that it must be there. So how about making it more stable: giving the user the ability to set the thickness and have it stay at that thickness. A "Freeze" option, you might say. I feel like it's always imposing itself on Lanes below. The front of the Lanes on the left has a similar feel. I feel like a wide border is always springing up on the left side of the Lanes.

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

@@farquarrmcspadden By thickness, do you mean the size of the margin? It's just that if the margin isn't fluid, then positioning the layout isn't free. And then basically the request is to remove all freedom to position the whiteboard, which is taking a sledgehammer to it. You must appreciate that all freedom, all zooming behavior, all flying to/from beats, *all* panning and moving around, would have to be destroyed in the whiteboard, in order to make it top/left-aligned. This is a negative change, and I have to be up front that this is unlikely to happen. But we're happy to come up with a way to make the "outside" feel different from the "inside" so that you're not distracted. Freedom of positioning is not unusual. Timelines in video editors aren't top-aligned. All drawing programs have free positioning. If Photoshop didn't allow free positioning, it would be difficult to ever have something you're working on in the middle of the screen. Being forced to work up against an edge feels claustrophobic, so we're deliberately engineering against this.

[@HollywoodCameraWork]

I debated this with a number of users, and people are aren't enthusiastic about having the whiteboard aligned to the left and top edge. I'm not sure if I understand the request correctly, but if it's about top/left alignment of the whiteboard, then this is difficult to accommodate without doing a lot of harm. Especially zoom animations would see the whiteboard fly to to the top/left corner when zooming out, and you'd never be able to work in the middle of the screen, always against the edge. But I'd like to drill down and find out what's bothering you that we can mitigate without pinning the whiteboard to the top/left edges. Isn't this mostly about not being clear on where it ends? I personally feel some background irritation from not knowing what's inside and outside. For example in Photoshop, it's always clear which part is outside the picture you're editing, and then you don't really think about how it's positioned. Is it possible this is your main frustration, and being top/left aligned is just one way to feel clear on what's in and out?

[@farquarrmcspadden]

@@HollywoodCameraWork Let's let this topic rest. Other nice things would be: The ability to both Create and Add a new character at the Beat level. As it is, the user can only Add a previously-created character at the Beat level. Or things as minorly minor as have the title screen (upon first launching the program) time out after 10-15 seconds and move to the program. Or at least have an X to indicate that you can click the screen away. As it is, the program feels like it has hung up or frozen. Details like that aren't the end of the world, but they would make things smoother.